Thursday, October 4, 2007

Area Residents Fighting Back Against Criminals

Ward Five has experienced a substantial increase in crime lately, particularly shootings, and a lot of that crime is taking place in our neighborhood. But citizens are gathering together to fight crime with a determination that I have never seen before. I attended four crime-focused meetings in the past month.

On September 7, Bloomingdale residents responded to a double-shooting of two woman who were shot while walking a dog (the dog was killed in the incident) by holding a meeting. I wish I could share with you the name of the individual who organized this meeting, but given that the meeting was confidential, I won't. It wasn't a commissioner or politician, it was a long-time resident. Bloomingdale residents didn't approach the meeting with questions of the police or politicians, but rather with very specific demands. The deadlines for meeting these demands were very short and the phrasing of the demands was (understandably) terse, but then-Commander Jennifer Greene responded very well. Meeting the demands was a matter of when, not whether.

On September 11, the experiment of a joint PSA 501-civic association meeting proceeded for the first time. I believe it was a success-- instead of virtually no citizen attendance (other than myself, Tom Usselman, and the police), 17 people attended the meeting hosted by Eckington Civic Association. Lt. White reported the rash of shootings, adding that there were 41 burglaries in PSA 501 in July. The police arrested four burglars, two of whom were out of jail pending sentencing. The police and residents discussed community strategy as well as the reasons behind the reoccuring crime (many of the criminals are back on the street three days after their arrest).

On September 22 (10 a.m. on a Saturday), seven residents attended my monthly constituent meeting at Sursum Corda Library. That meeting, which was attended by Sgt. Woodard and two other officers, focused almost entirely on crime issues faced by residents on Hanover Place N.W. Sgt. Woodard made the interesting comment that there are hardly any armed robberies of citzens, which stood in marked contrast to the tensions expressed over the Eckington listserv about safety in the New York Avenue area.

Finally, on September 25, the Bloomingdale residents held a follow-up meeting with police and government officials to verify progress. At least 40 people attended this meeting, including Mayor Adrian Fenty, Councilman Harry Thomas, Chief of Police Cathy Lanier, Capt. Scott, Lt. Wright, Lt. White, other officers, and four Advisory Neighborhood Commissioners. Again, the meeting details are secret, but problem property owners providing havens for drug activity should expect contact with police and community leaders in the near future about what they must do about tenants. The only demand that gave me pause was a proposal to place speed humps on R Street N.W. It seemed that the speed hump demand would be implemented without wider community input (beyond petitions on the immediate block), even though R Street acts as a signficant rush hour artery.

Clearly, if the current level of citizen vigilance is maintained, the criminals will move on. The question is how to sustain the intensity.

7 comments:

I would like to recognize the excellent police work Lt. Wright and his officers displayed and continue to display in my neighborhood. We had a growing problem with assaults and muggings to/from the New York Avenue Metro via Florida Ave and Eckington Place NE.

The presence of increased foot patrols and a squad car deployed at XM Radio HQ made a huge difference to public saftey. I'm certain these efforts prevented crime.

I'd also like to recognize Officer Freeman who spent many hours working at the Harry Thomas Senior Rec Center (unpaid!) with our neighborhood youth. His interventions are appreciated by our community.

Residents of R St. are threatened repeatedly by FedEx trucks and personal automobiles driven by people who will crush them in order to shave 5 seconds off of their drive times. When any person's unprotected body is treated as an inconvenience by speeding drivers, car-centric thinking of the kind you've demonstrated in your post tends to be forgotten quickly.

"Rush hour traffic" is already a miserable mess throughout the entire region. It will only get worse for the foreseeable future. Finally the safety of hundreds of people of a single block on a residential street (R St.) is placed above the "convenience" of drivers who subject themselves to traffic misery. Ultimately it won't make a difference to drivers. They'll still be going nowhere fast.

I've made contact with the police and the mayor about traffic on R St and numerous other concerns over the course of many years. I've also been in direct contact with the public relations department at FedEx regarding the reckless disregard their drivers show for my neighbors, my family and myself.

Now that I've answered your question, would you please explain the point you are trying to make by asking it?

In the past, FedEx agreed in principle to use the avenues and North Capital Street as the main ingress/egress routes for their trucks. They've failed repeatedly to act as good neighbors. In the past, the city denied the residents of R Street the very definition of the street as "residential". /If the street does not qualify for speed humps in your opinion,/ walk down the street, take pictures, post them to your blog, and then persuasively argue that it is not a residential street.

Ultimately, private drivers will argue against the speed humps by claiming they interfere with their lifestyle as motorists. Do you see the speed humps in that light? /argumentative question removed/

Thank you for the additional information. I asked the question because I wanted to make sure that you were focusing your energy at the people most responsible for fixing the problem. A lot of people share your view. For example, many people are experiencing foundation damage due to the traffic on R Street N.E. But I can't work with you if I don't know who you are, so please drop me an e-mail.

About Me

I served the Ward Five residents in ANC district 5C-02 on the Advisory Neighborhood Commission 5C from January 2007 until January 2009. I live on North Capitol Street in the Eckington-Bloomingdale area of Washington, D.C.